Altenburg students send photos of Perry County to Altenburg, Germany

ALTENBURG, Mo. -- Photographs of landscapes, farm animals and flowers started their journey to Germany on Wednesday to open the lines of communication between the old and new Altenburg.

Students from Altenburg's public and private schools attended a photography workshop in May 2008 with Dr. Joel Ray, a Cape Girardeau neurosurgeon and photographer. Using the techniques they learned, students took their own photos, which have been part of an exhibit at the Lutheran Heritage Museum since June, said Carla Jordan, director of the museum in Altenburg.

"That to me is east Perry County," said Jordan, pointing to a student's photograph of a shaded stream.

Sixteen of the students' photographs are en route to be displayed at the Lindenau Art Museum in Altenburg, Germany. The city of about 37,000 residents is in the eastern part of the country.

Ray said the project built the students' confidence and made them more aware of their heritage.

Pastor Steven Dressler of Altenburg, Mo., right, Bob Schmidt of Altenburg, left, and Steve Meier, postmaster of the Altenburg post office, and Jeanie Eddleman, with WESTRAY photography, pack photos taken by fifth- through eighth-graders in Concordia Trinity Lutheran school and Altenburg Elementary. (Elizabeth Dodd)

"They saw their role in projecting their community to others," Ray said. "I think they reached into their community to describe their community to others."

The photos, he said, show their younger perspective of Altenburg, Mo.

"I think that they're a wonderful depiction of these kids' community through their eyes," Ray said.

Ray will travel to Germany next month to conduct a similar three-day workshop with students at the museum's Art School. While there, students from Altenburg, Mo., and Altenburg, Germany, will communicate over the Internet.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society, a joint exhibit at the Heritage Museum in 2010 will display the work from both countries, Jordan said. She said she hopes to repeat the project in two years and eventually turn it into an exchange program.

Ray and his wife, Pat, are traveling with two other Altenburg couples involved in the project. Linda Dressler, principal of Concordia Trinity Lutheran School is traveling to Germany with her husband, the Rev. Steve Dressler of Trinity Lutheran Church.

The workshop was one of many projects where the public and private schools work together, she said. Students in fifth through eighth grade at the Lutheran school participated along with eighth-graders from Altenburg Elementary School.

The project was a visual learning method for students to explore the history of their community.

"It's a different way of learning rather than bookwork," Dressler said.

Bob Schmidt of the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society and his wife, Diane, will also make the journey. Schmidt and Dressler said they will visit relatives and family landmarks.

Schmidt said the project may spark the students' interests to do the same.

"I can't see how anyone wouldn't want to know where their relatives came from," Schmidt said.

Jordan and Jeanie Eddleman of Westray Photography, Ray's company, will coordinate operations in Missouri. They will help set up the web conference using students and television cameras at the Perryville Area Career and Technology Center.

"We're going to hold down the fort in America," Jordan said.

abusch@semissourian.com

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75 Church St., Altenburg, MO